Petty theft and other misdemeanors are out of control in San Francisco. It couldn’t be much worse even if by design, but the California penal code and George Soros-backed district attorneys like Chesa Boudin are making it much worse. Let’s examine the problem a bit.

Here are the Petty Theft definitions under California state law:

California law defines petty theft as the theft of any property with a value of $950 or less. Most petty thefts are charged as misdemeanors. Petty theft is a misdemeanor if the theft is a result of the shoplifting offense and the offender has no prior criminal record, or if the value of the stolen property is $950 or less. A misdemeanor conviction for petty theft in California carries a sentence of up to six months in county jail, a fine of no more than $1,000, or both. (Cal. Pen. Code, § 490.) However, if the property has a value of $50 or less, the prosecutor can charge the offense as an infraction, so long as the offender has had no other theft-related conviction. Petty theft charged as an infraction is punishable by a fine of no more than $250.

Get caught shoplifting, for example, and get charged with a misdemeanor under California Penal Code § 490. But what about if the shoplifter steals under $50 worth of merchandise. Do you suppose law enforcement resources are available to catch everyone who commits an “infraction”? Apparently not, as this video evinces. In short, $950 and under is a misdemeanor while $50 and under is an infraction, and both garner few if any police responses. Anarchy and chaos are the result.

Now add to that crime spree the likes of Chesa Boudin, the San Francisco District Attorney elected in 2019 without ever having tried a case. Check out his platform and objectives, as well as his radical parentage, as laid out in this article:

Like his peers on the left, Boudin ran on a platform of ending “mass incarceration,” eliminating cash bail, creating a unit to review wrongful convictions and refusing to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, as well as prosecuting ICE agents who violate so-called sanctuary city laws. He also wants to move the district attorney’s office away from prosecuting prostitution and minor quality-of-life crimes to focus, instead, on taking on corporations and prioritizing the most serious offenses.

Boudin, 39, spent decades visiting his parents in prison and, as a result, learned the ins and outs of the criminal justice system from a unique vantage point. Boudin’s parents were getaway drivers in the attempted Brink’s robbery in 1981 in Nanuet, New York, about 35 miles north of New York City. His mother, Kathy Boudin, pleaded guilty to murder and robbery and was imprisoned for more than two decades. His father, David Gilbert, is still behind bars after he was convicted of murder and robbery.

These practices are the exact opposite of those used by Mayor Rudy Giuliani and others to clean up New York City in the 1990s, as summarized in this article. A key tactic was to enforce the law on petty crimes as a means to control order and the streets in the city. Boudin appears to be headed in the other direction with his cockamamie ideas on “ending mass incarceration.” Here is the latest taste of what Boudin is up to:

Notoriously anti-police San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin announced a host of criminal justice reforms on Friday that will, among other things, allow gun-toting criminals to stay on the streets.

“Today we take action. We send a message that is loud and clear to the police department and to communities of color. We will no longer participate in, condone, tolerate or amplify racist police tactics,” Boudin told reporters at a press conference on Feb. 28, KTVU reported.

The district attorney announced that San Francisco prosecutors will no longer charge suspects for contraband found by police during “stop-and-frisk” searches conducted during the course of another interaction.

That means that going forward, if officers find a gun or drugs inside a vehicle while conducting a traffic stop for a vehicle violation, for example, the district attorney’s office won’t charge the person for the illegal gun or drugs, KTVU reported.

Boudin also announced that the district attorney’s office would no longer apply California’s three-strike law.

And he made good on a campaign promise to do away with gang enhancements to charges that frequently put gang members behind bars for many years longer than called for by the crime they committed.

What did people expect Boudin would do when they elected him – to actually work with police to enhance public safety and security measures or to coddle crooks? They got that for which they apparently voted.

There is an old saying that when you subsidize something, you get more of it. It is not a stretch to say that when you enable crime, you get more of that, too. “To protect and serve” is virtually impossible for police to deliver in a city with a DA like this guy ruling the roost. San Francisco apparently has other forms of feces that need to be dealt with besides that which is in its streets. Is this what the law-abiding citizens in that city really want?

I’d hate to be a cop in San Francisco.

The end.